17 day trip beginning in Barcelona, May 5, 2019.

You are going to some really great places (though I don't put the Costa del Sol in that category) but not spending enough time in any of them (except the Costa del Sol). Please reconsider. You arrive on May 6, jetlagged and quite possibly also severely sleep-deprived. You depart on May 22, a day which will be devoted basically entirely to getting to the airport 3 hours before your flight departs. Therefore, you have 15 fully usable days, and you are proposing to go to 3 countries and 9 cities, and you plan to change hotels 9 times. Every time you change hotels it costs you at least half a day, often more. So instead of 15 fully usable days you have 9 days chopped up by traveling to a new city and just 6 days to enjoy where you are. And two of them are on the Costa del Sol, your least interesting destination other then Morocco.

Speaking of which, Morocco is great, but Tangier is not. If you had more time you could fly to Morocco and see Fes and Marrakech. As it stands, you should scratch that idea and use that time somewhere else.

You need to use ViaMichelin.com to check the driving times for your travel legs by car. Those times don't include stopping, getting lost, looking for parking, etc., so you need to pad them considerably.

You can check train times most easily on the Deutsche Bahn website, but if you want to look at fares, you'll need to go elsewhere.

You can get to Malaga from Cordoba in half the time by train as compared to the driving time, so I'd suggest taking the train all the way south and picking up the car there. Actually, I'd suggest skipping Malaga and the Costa del Sol entirely, but it's your trip.

A car rented in Cordoba doesn't necessarily have to be returned to Cordoba. The drop fee may be minor or zero, so it's worth checking out.

I like Portugal, but 15 days is short for Spain alone, so I'd recommend that you hold off on Portugal until you can give it more time. You are proposing to spend over 5 hours driving to Lisbon, take a train to and from Porto, then spend over 6 hours driving from Lisbon to Cordoba--all in order to have one day and a few hours in Lisbon and less than a day in Porto. It's just not a good use of your time.

Hello, I think you have to take a big step back and really revise your itinerary. 2 nights in Barcelona? 1 night in Sevilla? 10 major cities in 16 nights (with the main sights requiring prebooked timed tickets)? All your time will be traveling you won't have any time to actually see anything.

You have just enough time for Barcelona/Madrid and Andalucia, let alone adding two additional culturally deep countries like Morocco and Portugal. Also you shouldn't fly in and out of Barcelona, it will force you to backtrack and waste more time and money, fly out of Madrid instead.

Taking into consideration your interests, I would rearrange your itinerary in the following way:

Fly in to Barcelona
Barcelona (4 nights)
Fly to Granada
Granada (2 nights)
Rent car and drive to
White Hill Towns (2 nights)
Drive to Sevilla and drop off car
Sevilla (3 nights)
AVE Train to
Cordoba (2 nights)
AVE Train to
Madrid (3 nights)
Fly out of Madrid

I like Carlos's itinerary but suggest that you check into Alhambra tickets before committing to Granada. I think the basic tickets for May are totally sold out. You might be able to get a Dobla de Oro ticket (covers more, a bit more expensive) or you might be able to buy the Granada Card(more and more) and get an Alhambra ticket that way. [Edited to correct unfortunate omission.]

If those tactics do not work, you'll need to try to get something through your hotel. That probably won't be successful unless you book in advance--but you'll need to do that for Granada anyway, because you are highly unlikely to be able to just walk up and get an Alhambra ticket. If your hotel can't help you, you're down to paying for a tour. Be sure you don't get one that doesn't cover the Nasrid Palaces. That's the part of the Alhambra for which tickets are difficult, but there is at least one company that has sold tours of the Alhambra that skip the best part.

This is too much rip and running, only musicians on tour travel like this.

I'm not sure your itinerary is entirely practical. But even if it is, it is not logical - why does Cordoba feature twice? For that leg, if you were to do it wouldn't it be better to drive Lisbon to Merida, then drive to Madrid (moved from earlier in the current itinerary), then railway back to Barcelona? This assumes you keep the car you hire in Sevilla until Madrid, there will still likely be a drop-off fee, but not as bad as hiring in Lisbon and dropping in Spain.

I find the US dating system unnecessarily confusing, but it looks like you have 15 nights. That isn't enough for three countries, even if one is just an overnight (and I've never been to Morocco, but many suggest that Tangier isn't the best option and instead you need several days and to see other, better cities)

"Is it less expensive to book while in Spain?" If you mean transport then, broadly, no. Cheaper airfares and railway tickets sell out and the closer to travel date, the more likely you have to pay a higher fare.

Some parts of Costa del Sol are hideous, but others very worthwhile, including Malaga city itself and the western part of the coast. Still, with so many options, I'd not make it a priority this visit.

I'd concentrate on Barcelona/Portugal or Barcelona/Andalucia. Not try to do all three. Also, I don't know where exactly Seattle is (west I think?), but is it necessary to both arrive and depart from Barcelona? If not, you might save a day back-tracking, perhaps, by using another airport in Spain/Portugal, even if changing in Amsterdam or London, for instance.

Your plan will create plenty of memories of travel, but few memories of why you traveled.

This looks to me to be a "drive by trip". You are going to drive by and say you have seen it and the rest of the time you are going to be traveling, I would cut out at least half of the destinations, replan and fly into Barcelona and out of Madrid or vice versa. We have done a few drive by trips, learned from them and now cut out about half of the items for wiggle room and to stop and smell the roses.

I travel at a faster clip than most, but still, this is way beyond too much. I would start with eliminating Madrid and Morocco and probably Costa del Sol. Research your cities and then prioritize and then throw the question out again, and people like Nick, Carlos, acraven, etc., will help you set up a logical order. Yes, It doesn't make sense to be in Cordoba twice. In general, you should be able to find a one way car rental without a drop charge. I've not been to Portugal. In terms of Spain, I'd focus on Barcelona, Sevilla, Cordoba and Granada (if you can get Alhambra tickets)

I should think that you'd be able to fly into Barcelona and out of Madrid or Lisbon. (Even if I flew out of Madrid, I'd probably only spend the last night there, given the great cities you have on your wish list.